


More Alike Than You Think

by SilenceIsGolden15



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Discussions of Kerberos, Friendship, Gen, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 17:17:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16559957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: Their first day of Voltron is done, and Keith and Pidge find some time to chat.





	More Alike Than You Think

**Author's Note:**

> This is a birthday fic for the lovely @noromojustkeith on Tumblr, whom I adore to the ends of the Earth. Happy Birthday!

“Are you ok?”

Pidge glanced up, brow furrowing in confusion when she found the new Red Paladin, Keith, standing over her. 

“Uh, yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?”

He fidgeted a bit: tugging on the ends of his jacket sleeves before settling on crossing his arms and casting his eyes off to the side. 

“Just-- you were hoping to find your family on Sendak’s ship, right?”

Pidge’s breath hitched. There was a moment of tense silence before she pulled herself together enough to clear her throat and answer. 

“Yeah, I was. It’s ok though, the other aliens we rescued might have some leads.”

Keith gave a considering hum and shifted his weight to his other foot. It was unbearably awkward, and she considered letting the conversation end where it was before coming to her senses.    
They would be stuck up here with each other for God knows how long. She might as well put a little effort into getting to know him.

“Lance mentioned you used to go to the Garrison, too.”

Keith startled, as though he hadn’t expected her to speak again, and turned a bit red. 

“For a few years,” he said in a mumble as he scuffed one of his boots over the floor. 

“And you’re close to Shiro?”

A tiny smile curved his lip. “You could say that.”

There was another pause as Pidge hesitated. After all, she didn’t want to get too close to anyone and reveal her secret, but then she remembered his lonely shack in the desert and that mess of a corkboard, not far removed from what her bedroom walls had looked like after Kerberos, and that made her decision for her. 

She scooted to the side on the lounge sofa.

“Wanna sit down?”

Keith’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but he didn’t refuse. Up close his jacket smelled like desert sand and old wool blankets-- kind of cozy. 

“So… did you believe what they said about the Kerberos Mission?”

He went rigid like petrified wood and Pidge bit her lip, praying she hadn’t pushed too far. They hadn’t known each other for much more than a day, but of all the people in the Castle he was the one who would know exactly how she felt. 

But he wasn’t saying anything. The silence stretched on, and on, and she’d just begun to accept she wasn’t going to get an answer at all when he finally spoke. 

“Not really. It didn’t… feel right. But I didn’t expect to see Shiro again, either.”

“Why not?”

Keith sighed a little, just a wisp of air. “Because that’s not how life works. People don’t just come back.”

Pidge frowned at that, but before she could say anything Keith was pushing the conversation onward.

“Is that why you were at the Garrison? To find out what really happened?”

Pushing aside the strangeness of his last remark, Pidge nodded in affirmation.

“Iverson banned me from the campus after he caught me hacking into the video feeds from the probes, so I had to fake my identity to get back in.”

Keith leaned forward to balance his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand. “I wish I was smart enough to have done that,” he muttered, frowning at the floor. “All I did was yell at Iverson and get in fights until they threw me out. Fat lot of good that did for Shiro.”

Pidge shrugged nonchalantly, though she watched his expression like a hawk. “I didn’t find out much either. I knew they were lying, but I couldn’t do anything to prove it. We were both dead in the water until Shiro crash landed.”

“Yeah. Guess you’re right.” But his frown didn’t move.

“Besides,” she continued with a playful bump to his shoulder that make him lift his eyebrows again in surprise, “Without you we wouldn’t have found the Blue Lion.” 

“Mm. Suppose so.” He wasn’t convinced. Pidge decided, for now, to let it go. She had something else she wanted to ask about.

“It’s kind of a personal question, but I was wondering why you were living out in the desert all by yourself.” She watched as Keith’s expression dropped and considered withdrawing the question, but decided to wait and see if Keith would answer it anyway. He opened and closed his mouth several times before finding the words he wanted.

“I don’t have any family,” he said eventually, so softly it was practically a whisper. “So when Shiro went to Kerberos and I got kicked out I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

Pidge hummed and leaned back against the plush cushions. They were still ridiculously dusty after ten thousand years of disuse, but they could probably solve that soon enough. 

“It was lonely, huh? Being the only one who believed?”

“Yeah. It was.” 

“I ran away from home.” In her periphery Pidge saw Keith straighten up and look at her, but she kept her gaze carefully planted on her hands folded in her lap. “I left a note for my mom saying I couldn’t take it anymore without Matt and dad there. That was true, but I didn’t tell her I was going to sneak into the Garrison with forged records. I thought she’d stop me. So she’s all alone too.”

Keith was quiet for a moment, thinking over his words. “You did what you had to do,” he said eventually. “She’ll understand when you go home with them with you.”

“You think I’ll find them?” She hadn’t meant to ask the question but it was far too late now. “In the whole empire? You saw how big it was.”

Keith gave a half shrug, finally leaning back against the couch with her. “I never thought I’d find Shiro, either.” 

“That’s… a good point.”

“Mhm.”

For a long while they sat there in silence, but unlike the first one it wasn’t awkward at all. They merely existed together, content not to speak now that the important things had been said. But eventually Pidge started yawning and got up to go to bed. But not before saying one last thing to Keith.

“Thanks, Keith. For what you said.”

In response she got a small, shy smile.

“Sure, Pidge. Anytime.”

 


End file.
